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Oliver Brown filed a complaint to the Topeka Board of Education in Kansas so that way his 8 year old daughter could go to an all white school. He was not the only one who filed complaints or the first. The Supreme Court ruled his case to end segregation because it was unconstitutional.

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http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/history-brown-v-board-education-re-enactment

http://www.kaaac.ks.gov/legislative-advocacy/news-events/meetings-and-signature-projects/events/2013/02/22/oliver-brown---first-plaintiffs-in-the-civil-rights-case-brown-vs-topeka-board-of-education-et-al-

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brown-v-board/bios.html

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_brown.html

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On February 28, 1951, the battle between Brown and the Board of Education began in Topeka Kansas with a complaint being filed.  Oliver Brown's daughter, Linda Brown, had to walk  twenty one blocks to the nearest black school while the nearest white school was only seven blocks away.  Brown was not the only person to file a complaint.  Twelve families other than the Browns were plaintiffs. On May 17, 1954, there was a unanimous decision in the court that ended the segregation in public schools.

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Oliver Brown

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In the Declaration of Independence it is stated that "All men are created equal", however in many places blacks were not treated equally. In most states there were laws that required or allowed blacks and whites to be separate. These were called Jim Crow laws. In the 1890s these laws were challenged in court for the first time by an African American named Homer Plessy. He had refused to give up his seat on a train. His case made it to the Supreme Court but he lost the case. It was decided that segregated facilities were constitutional and would continue to be allowed.
Oliver Brown was born on August 17, 1918 in Springfield, Missouri. He was involved with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). He worked as a welder and as an assistant pastor. In 1950, he, along with 12 other families, tried to enroll his daughter, Linda Brown, in a white only school. When they were not able to enroll their children there, the Topeka branch of the NAACP filed suit against the Topeka School Board of Education. Four years after that, along with other similar cases, the Supreme Court ruled in their favor and said that the segregation of schoolchildren went against the Fourteenth Amendment.